Waunakee-area canvassers verify machine tape totals, certify April election winners

The Board of Canvassers for the Waunakee area met on Monday in an afternoon session to review machine tape images, reconcile ward totals and complete certificates of determination for the April election.

Canvassers Tom Ensign, Judy Engelbretsen (clerk, Waunakee Community School District) and Bruce Engelbretson reviewed tally sheets and enlarged machine tapes from multiple municipalities — including the Village of Waunakee, the towns of Dane and Springfield, Madison, Middleton, Vienna and Westport — to confirm the numbers printed by the voting machines. The panel recessed briefly to cross-check totals and then signed and notarized the required certification documents.

The canvassers treated the exercise as a verification of machine-reported totals rather than a hand count of ballots. They used pencil on tally sheets at first, compared the printed tape rows for each candidate and added unit-level totals across wards and machines. The canvassers discussed and resolved several small discrepancies by enlarging scanned tape images and confirming which digits were printed on each tape. The panel also noted the difference between undervotes (ballots cast but no vote in a contest) and overvotes (voters selecting more candidates than allowed).

The canvassers recorded and completed certificates of determination for winners reported from the machine tapes. The clerk confirmed the compiled totals for named local contests: the canvassers agreed that “Mister Sunny” won the Dane Springfield seat (total recorded in the meeting: 7,058); Heather Murray was recorded with 4,441 votes; and Carly Eaton was recorded with 4,243 votes. The panel also recorded unit- and ward-level subtotals during the review (for example, a 736/738 check on one unit for a Waunakee ward and a 669 figure cited for one candidate in earlier comparison work). The canvassers noted that write-in votes are counted only if a write-in candidate registered by a stated deadline (a participant said that deadline was March 31).

Administrative details were completed before adjournment: the canvassers signed the certificate of determination for the village of Waunakee and for the towns of Dane and Springfield, the clerk notarized the documents, and the group scanned the certified copies for permanent records. The meeting concluded with the canvassers agreeing the scanned copies were sufficiently legible and adjourning at 1:37 p.m.

The session was procedural: its purpose was to confirm that the voting-machine tapes matched the reported totals and to execute the formal paperwork that documents the canvass and certification.